We met Zack P. back in
August, when he was the
sole protester at the Grand Forks, North Dakota Tea Parties.
So, what has Zack been up to? I recently received an email
answering just that question. “Abe: Am working on a protest of
Focus on the Family and their hate-filled B.S. and I can tell by
some of the comments on The Awl that people tend to think of North
Dakota as a bunch of rednecks… just don’t want my hometown to seem
like Laramie. Interested?” I was. But when I arrived at the church,
Zack was nowhere to be found. Just two police cruisers.

The event was sponsored by Grand Forks Hope Covenant Church and
was titled “Balancing Truth & Grace: A Christian Response To
Homosexuality.” Their intent was “to inform in the spirit of truth
and grace to fully understand the issue and be equipped to minister
to someone dealing with same-sex attractions.” Speakers at the
event included Melissa Fryrear (of Exodus International) and Jeff
Johnston, who is the author of the
must-read report “Childhood Sexual Abuse and Male
Homosexuality.”

Zack was not arrested. He has mostly good things to say about
the church and how welcoming they were. The police were called more
for his safety than anything else. And Zack had managed to motivate
a group of people to join him in the peaceful protest. He told me
all this when I met him for beers later at a bar in downtown Grand
Forks.

Zack has written letters to the editor of the Grand Forks
Herald about gay rights. One supported the passage of North
Dakota state bill SB2278, a sexual orientation rights bill which
would make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual
orientation for employment, housing, and other services. The bill
made it all the way through the state Senate before being killed,
in April, in the House.

This means that in North Dakota, you can legally be denied a job
or bank credit, or be evicted, because you are gay. Meanwhile, the
North Dakota Family Alliance asked the governor to designate
November 15-21 as “Family Week,” to “honor the family and encourage
families to spend time together.” Because Governor John Hoeven is
spineless, he immediately did so.

Zack actually wrote
letters to the editor in support of this bill after it
died (“Bill would have let gays ‘live as themselves'”). A month
later he wrote
another one (“No turning back tide of gay rights”). He did this
under his full name.

Not long after these letters appeared, Zack lost his housing and
job at the Masonic Temple, where he was also a building manager.
The reason given for his firing and eviction was tight funding.
That may be true. But even if it was because he was gay, that is a
totally legal reason.

After that, Zack moved in with his parents. After the typical
initial shock, awkward discomfort and distancing that comes with
having a child “come out,” they treat him as any plain old loving
parents would.

Zack is 21 and he works two jobs. He is a proud North Dakotan
who, in true regional character, wants government out his business
and the right to work hard and have a nice home. To be his Facebook
friend is to be inundated with updates about a guy perpetually at,
going to, or coming from, work. He is a mechanic at a locally-owned
gas station. He learned to fix cars from restoring his own
“projects,” including a decrepit 1970 Coronet that he pulled out of
a field one summer. He dropped a 500-horsepower 440 with a built
727 into it (with plans of adding a set of headers and 2.5 exhaust
with cutouts with 3.55 sure grip and slicks). The Coronet then
exploded, due to too much power. He’s going to start over.

His other job has been managing shipping inventory at one of
Grand Forks’ warehouse retailers. He needs the money because there
is this great old house in town he wants to renovate-and he wants
to get his own apartment again. But he just lost this warehouse
job; that particular national retailer (Target) frowns on
moonlighters.

Gay life in Grand Forks, North Dakota is not the black hole one
might imagine. The North Dakota Ten Percent Society is active at
the university. They throw parties from time to time. But it’s
still a small town and being openly gay is to take your safety into
your own hands.

He often thinks about leaving, because… come on. “I would love
to settle down with somebody and have a kid someday,” he said, with
the emphasis on “someday.” “But what happens at school during
parent teacher conferences? My two dads are going to go in there?
That’s crap. I mean, I can take it. But I can’t put a kid through
that here.”

But without any connections in larger cities like Minneapolis,
or the savings to make that kind of move, he probably can’t leave.
And, anyway, Zack loves North Dakota. That is a tremendous tragedy
because North Dakota does not love Zack.

Meanwhile, Levi Johnston is a sex symbol (even, inexplicably, a gay
one). He has been in pistachio commercials and magazines and on red
carpets. The feckless media that have pathetically wallowed in the
mud to take advantage of (and subsequently enrich) Johnston include
Vanity Fair, GQ, and New York magazine. Gawker
exploited him by giving him an award. Playgirl, a tug rag
that never pretended to be about anything but exploitation, came
out in the end as, surprisingly, the most principled. Levi Johnston
became a celebrity, and a wealthier man, all because of how much
the people who write for these publications hate the woman he is
tangentially connected to. (The enemy of my enemy is my
intellectually-shameless disposable fetish-object.)

Levi Johnston’s only accomplishment is displeasing a woman that
a bunch of so-called free thinkers are displeased by-and he
accomplished that largely by not wearing a condom. That is his only
real accomplishment. That is his only attempt at a real
accomplishment.

Zack P. is not from an out-of-touch family that is famous or
rich or of political royalty. He is not a pointy-headed elitist
coaster who knows what’s best for everyone. He carries no baggage
from the 1960s. He’s young. He’s a hard-working guy from Middle
America and he gets down and dirty politically and risks his neck
for what he believes in. He should be the left’s future. He
should be the left’s poster child, its goddamn sex symbol-not some
actor who happens to lend his good looks to whatever “awareness”
campaign is hot. Zack is not the future America deserves but he’s
the one it needs. Zack should be one of this pitiful nation’s
sexiest people.

To this end, The Awl has put together a 2010 benefit
calendar of sexy Zack goodness. The calendar features a
collection of photos that are preposterous, topical, sexy,
poignant, naked, embarrassing and bad-sometimes all at the same
time. (If you are a nit-picky art director, you may have some
complaints about the execution, in which case, you are welcome to
art-direct next year’s calendar-pro bono, of course. Also, the
online preview looks terrible, but it looks much better in
print!)

All proceeds go to Zack, to be used for making protest posters
or buying extra locks for his new house (cross your fingers!) or
for taking a trip to somewhere warm. (The details: Manufacturing
cost is $12.49, Lulu.com takes $1.50, and the remaining $6 go to
Zack.) And in the unlikely event that this is an overly-successful
venture, he will be donating a portion of the profits to the
Matthew
Shepard Foundation.